All About Bowling Accessories

Series Summary

Bowling is an ancient game that is a professional and amateur sport in today’s culture. Believed to have originated in Germany, the main object of bowling is to knock down as many pins as possible with a weighted bowling ball. American ten-pin bowling is the most common type of bowling among competitors and pros. There are many other types of indoor and outdoor bowling including nine-pin skittles, candlepin bowling, cocked-hat bowling, Bocce, and lawn bowls. In most forms of bowling, the bowler rolls the bowling ball towards the pins down a lane that is guarded by a gutter on either side. Each frame of scoring allows the player two balls or two tries to knock down the pins. If the player knocks down all the pins in the first try, it is called a strike. If the player knocks down all of the pins in the first frame with the use of both balls, this is called a spare.

In this series of expert videos, you will find expert tips on professional bowling techniques. Learn more about the accessories such as ball bags or gloves that you may need to improve your bowling skills. Learn more about lane configuration and techniques to use on dry or oily bowling lanes. Watch as our expert tries the conventional or beginner grip on different types of bowling balls. See a demonstration on the five step approach to the bowling lane and learn more about follow through and delivery. Our expert will also recommend tips for finding a good bowling coach in these informative videos. Once you have mastered the basics of bowling, try this expert’s example of the fingertip or advanced grip on the bowling ball.

Video Transcript

"Hi, I am Ed Kramarcik, PBA member and AMF staff player, and I am here today at Rip the Rack Pro Shop in Longwood, Florida. We are going to go over bowling accessories. A lot of people come in and they look for towels, rosin bags, new skin, and I will go over some of these things with you, and you can visit your pro shop on exactly what you are looking for to help your game. And I am going to explain some things to you today, or you can visit me at www.riptherackbowling.com and purchase it online, or visit your pro shop in your local area. Today we are going to cover a few basics on needed accessories by the bowlers. The first product is new skin, it is called ‘Skin Protector’. A lot of bowlers, when they are bowling a lot of games, their hands sweat and they start getting a lot of friction whenever they release the ball on their thumb or their fingers. And this is new skin, it has a bottle of new skin in it, a skin protector, it is liquid, you put it on with a patch and it dries in seconds and you can go out and bowl instead of tearing your hand up where you start bleeding. So if you are getting a blister when you are bowling, before it breaks go out and get new skin and put it on your thumb or you finger. There is a patch, it will protect you, and you can continue to bowl. The next thing a lot of people do is they buy non-slip, a lot of people drop the ball too early where it is falling off of their hand if they are sweating. Some people when they sweat the ball does not fall off, and other people it slides off quicker because they are sweating. You have non-slip cream, so if you put that on your hand you will grip the ball better and you will not drop it so early at the foul line. So that is another good thing to have in your bowling bag, is non-slip cream a lot of bowlers use. We also have a bunch of accessories on tapes, bowling tape, I use usually one inch white for my game, because my hand swells up and down. So when I get my ball drilled, I like to have a bigger thumb. So if I am in Reno, Nevada and my hand is swelling up due to the humidity, and if the ball is too tight, then I cannot get out of it and I cannot make good shots. So you want to have the thumb a little bigger where you use tape. And the idea of that is when your hand goes up and down, in the wintertime your hand shrinks, you are dropping the ball a lot. If you have bowlers’ tape, it is precut, and you get 30 pieces in a box, it is AMF Bowlers’ Tape; and what you do is you put it in the thumb hole or the fingers’ holes, and that helps you grip the ball better and it makes it fit better. So you want to go out to your shop and get bowling tape, bowling tape is really important, most of the bowlers all use bowlers’ tape today. The next thing that we could use is polishes, for all of your balls we have many different polishes. The first one is all-purpose polish: this is if the ball is hooking too much, if the lanes are dry, and you went out, and there was a league before you. You are a 9o’clock league, and they have been bowling on your lane since 6o’clock; all of the oil is gone now. So now you want to polish your ball. When you polish your ball, spray it on and wipe it with a towel; the ball is going to go longer on the lane before it hooks. So you will not have to hurt yourself by throwing faster to keep the ball on the lane. So, it is good to have all of the polishes in the bag. The next thing is, when you are bowling a while and you have all of the oil on the ball, you want to have a good cleaner; so you want to pick up reactive clean if you have a reactive bowling ball. Spray it on your ball, wipe it off, and that will get all of the belt marks off from the lanes, from under as the ball returns. A lot of times you will have damage where it is black and it looks like soot; and spray it on your ball, wipe it off, and you will get a lot better ball reaction when you use polishes and cleaners. So if you want you ball to hook more, they also sell “hook it.” What that does is sprays your ball and makes the actual ball hook. So if you are having trouble where the lanes are really oily and the ball will not hook, will not make the corner, will not make the turn in the 1-3 pocket, buy hook it. Spray it on your ball, wipe it, and go out and bowl and your ball will hook. Now remember, ABC, WIBC and USBC, you are not allowed to alter the surface of your bowling ball once competition starts. So go and visit your pro shop before you start your game. You will get your practice session in and then you start bowling. Once you start bowling, you cannot alter the surface of your cover stock on any bowling ball. So make sure that you stop in your pro shop, buy your cleaners, your polishes, your rosin, your tape: whatever you need before you start your game, because you cannot put any foreign substance on the ball once you start competition, or you will be disqualified. Thank you and I hope that was a lot of help to you, and go out and bowl a good game. "